Bear Lake Watch
General Membership Meeting
.
Bear Lake Watch Annual Membership Meeting
July 8, 2006 at 10:00 a.m.
at The Canyon Cove Convention Center
Garden City, UT.
The meeting was called to order by Pres. Merlin Olsen.
Merlin thanked everyone for coming and for supporting
Bear Lake Watch, both financially and physically.
The Executive Directors have made an extensive list of
Goals and Objectives. The list has been reviewed by the Board and the
decision boils down to, How can we best use our resources? We have decided
to concentrate our efforts on four areas.
1. Continue to be the set of eyes watching what is going on at Bear
Lake.
2. Water Quality and Water Accountability.
3. Education – there is a need to educate others and continue
to educate ourselves.
4. Be prepared to defend Bear Lake if that need ever arises.
We have to have a presence wherever Bear Lake issues are
discussed. David and Claudia provide this.
Election of Officers
Phil Olsen made a motion to re-elect the following officers and Board
of Trustees.
Merlin Olsen - President
Dick Motta - President Emeritus
David Cottle - Executive Director
Claudia Cottle - Executive Director
Carol Braun - Executive Assistant
Board of Trustees -
Jody Burnett (new)
David Cottle
Russ Cottle
Ann Johnson
Jim Kimbal
Duncan King
Bryce Nielson
Phil Olsen
Jerry Phelps
Jim Rich (new)
Margaret Sargent (new)
Ted Schmidt
Richard Strong
Gary Burgener - Emeritus
Seconded by Sue Ellis, voted and passed unanimously.
Bear Lake Watch 2005 Financial Report - Carol
Braun
Morgan Stanley as of June 30, 2006 $20,311.61
Checking account as of June 11, 2006 $50,395.32
Grants account as of June 30, 2006 $3,000.00
Operations account as of June 30, 2006 $3,000.00
Thus far for this year's donation/membership drive we
have collected $8,000.00. This is about $2,500.00 more
than this time last year. Way to Go!!!
Finance Committee - Jim Rich
Jim Rich presented the 2006 budget of $43,300. Funds for Administration
include the Exec. Directors salaries, funds to attend 3 conferences
yearly and for Directors & Officers Liability Insurance. Funds for
Membership include a membership drive, On The Level newsletter and advertising.
Funds for Education include press releases, Raspberry Days booth, and
the web site. There is a Legal Fund and an Science & Education Fund
that will be contributed to annually.
Merlin made a motion to accept the budget as presented.
It was seconded and approved unanimously.
Administrative - Merlin
The By-laws of Bear Lake Watch need some changes so the language reflects
what we really
are doing. The following changes were recommended for change:
Change of language: Board of Trustees instead of Directors.
The number of the Trustees: The number of Trustees of
the Corporation shall be twenty instead of fourteen (adopted in 2004).
The language of the term of service for trustees: The
members of the Board elected at the first meeting of the membership
shall have staggered terms in such a manner that five are elected .
. . Eliminated the requirement for “staggered terms”.
The timing of the annual meeting shall be changed as to
not tie it into an exact time.
The annual meeting of the Board of Trustees shall be held
at a designated
location, immediately following the annual meeting of the membership.
Removed “immediately following the annual membership meeting”.
The membership amounts were changed as follows:
| Old |
|
New |
|
| Individual |
$20 |
Individual |
$25 |
| |
|
Couple |
$50 |
| Affiliate |
$100 |
|
|
| Gold |
$100 |
|
|
| Corporate |
$100 |
Business |
$250 |
| Lifetime |
$500 |
Platinum |
$1000+ |
The wording under the dissolution was changed. We are
no longer working through the LAW fund so proceeds from our dissolution
would go to another organization similar to ours.
A motion was made to accept these changes to the By-laws.
It was seconded, voted on, and approved unanimously.
Directors Report - Claudia
Updating the by-laws and formalizing our goals and objectives are key
steps in being able to apply for operating grants from larger private
foundations. We will also have to ability to administer grant funds
for specific projects that benefit Bear Lake
Ted and Elizabeth Schmidt have generously offered to fund
the newsletter. We really appreciate it.
We have acquired a non-profit mailing status which will
save us a lot of money.
The planned use of Bear River (or eventually Bear Lake??)
water by the Wasatch Front needs to be monitored and watched closely.
The funds have been appropriated by the Utah legislature to begin acquisition
of right away easements and do engineering studies for this purpose.
Money has been appropriated by both Wyoming and Idaho
legislatures ($50,000 each) to fund studies by the Corps of Engineers
for potential flood control storage sites upstream of Bear Lake.
Lake Level - David
It was supposed to be a great water year. The official prediction was
to reach 5914. The actual high was 5911.96 ft. The warm weather had
a profound effect, but a 4.24 foot rise is still not bad! PacifiCorp
Energy just started pumping last Wednesday, June 27th. They hope to
only take 50,000 acre feet of water. The drought years taught everyone
that they can conserve and there is still a concerted effort to carefully
watch what is needed and what is used. The main river gauges and diversions
in the Randolph and Cokeville areas now have real time flow data. It
is transmitted to www.bearriverbasin.org
and is available to the Bear River Commission, the water managers, water
users and the public. Evanston area and several of the downstream canal
companies are going online soon. Accountability of water use in action!
Legal Committee - Jody Burnett
The Legal Committee met with Stewart Hansen to review to legal history
of BLW. They are reviewing the Bear Lake Settlement Agreement for compliance
regarding water quality and water quantity and to be able to give advice
to the Directors and Board.
Membership Committee - Ann Johnson
Ann commented that with all of the thousands of people enjoying the
lake and the handful of people here at this meeting, more need to be
interested.
Yesterday, BLW mailed a personal letter from Margaret Sargent, a donation
form, and an invitation for one of the 3 evening socials to 1400 secondary
homeowners in Rich County. There will be a social for full time residents
and business owners this fall. We will be doing the same next year in
Idaho.
The question was asked, Have the homeowner's associations been open
to BLW giving a presentation at their annual meetings? The answer -
We have gotten mixed reviews. Bear Lake West was not receptive when
we tried in 2003 and 2004. Primary and secondary homeowners are important
and we need to continue to bridge the gap between these two.
Bear Lake Watch projects - David Cottle
Raspberry Days booth - August 3, 4, and 5th, 2006.
We need to get people to sign-up to work at the booth. The sign-up sheet
is at the back of the room.
Automation of Bear Lake level readout
Bear Lake Watch is going to automate real-time readouts of the lake
level. The Bear Lake Watch website will be the official site for this
information. There will also be readouts for the public at the marina.
There will be one to three webcams available and probably weather data.
Merlin - When the settlement agreement was first signed,
BLW and the irrigators had been at odds for several years. Since then,
a good working relationship has been created with them. The irrigators
realize that Bear Lake water needs to be protected for their use as
well as for ours.
Utah State Lands - Kelly Allen
Utah State Lands sent out a press release to the various papers in Utah
about doing work on the state lands at Bear Lake. Kelly said to his
knowledge none of the papers had printed the article.
They have started to work on a comprehensive management
plan for Bear Lake. Utah State University produced the initial document.
It is available at http://www.ffsl.utah.gov/SovLands/bearlake.php.
There will be a couple of open houses for input from the general public.
Tentative dates are: August 8, 2006 in Salt Lake City at the Division
of Natural Resources and August 12, 2006 in Bear Lake. The public is
welcome and bring your comments. They will sort and analyze the comments
for inclusion in the draft document. So far, Idaho is watching Utah,
but not doing anything.
The meeting was adjourned.
Next years meeting is July 14, 2007
